Video Editors: Abhishek Sharma & Mohd Irshad Alam
Cameraperson: Abhishek Ranjan
Producers: Kanishk Dangi & Kaushiky Kashyap
The issue of electoral bonds was raised in the Parliament over the last week. There was a fiery debate over it. But let us congratulate the Opposition and the mainstream media who have finally woken up and smelled the coffee.
The electoral bonds were introduced in 2017 as a legal way to make donations to a political party. After getting one inspected by a trusted forensic institute, The Quint found that the bonds can be traced back to the donor. Further, the information about the donor will only be available to the government and not put in the public domain.
This means that electoral bonds, which were presented as an electoral reform to curb black money in politics, turned out to be just another story by the BJP. The reality is exactly the opposite.
But Why Raise This Issue Now?
An RTI reply revealed that RBI had said that electoral bonds may increase the chances of money laundering. Even the Election Commission had opposed the bonds, citing that it might increase the circulation of black money. But the government sidelined all these objections and rolled out the electoral bonds anyway.
But what are electoral bonds?
Electoral bonds are a form of a bearer bond which any person, corporate conglomerate or an organisation can purchase from SBI and submit to a political party in the form of a donation. The party then resubmits the bond back to bank and gets their money in return.
According to an Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report, after the release of electoral bonds, the BJP received 90% of donations made by these bonds in the first round.
When the transparency of electoral bond was challenged in the Supreme Court, the court asked that the donation amounts of various parties be provided to them in a ‘sealed cover’. A ‘sealed cover’ often acts as a tool to make institutions ineffective as it does not put the information in the public domain.
The RTI reply revealed one more thing. The electoral bonds were supposed to be used for donations in Lok Sabha polls. It wasn’t supposed to be used for Assembly polls. But, the bonds were used to raise money for state-level elections as well.
The final amount of donations made through electoral bonds after 2019 Lok Sabha polls stands at around Rs 6,000 crore. Most of it went to the BJP. Other Opposition parties who are in power in states like the TMC and BJD also managed to get a significant chunk of a few hundred crores.
The entire process of election funding has been made less transparent. An environment of fear and intimidation has been created where a donor can’t be seen making significant donations to Opposition parties even if they want to.
The claims that electoral bonds keep donors anonymous, curb black money and increase transparency, are all false.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)